In the Loupe
In the Loupe
Retailer Roundtable: Hosting Events and Predicting Trends in Retail
Marketing professionals Lisa-Marie Delgado from Gary J. Long Jewelers &
Aurora Simpson from Holliday Jewelry share insights on retail strategies, event planning, and industry trends in an energetic conversation LIVE from the Punchmark Client Workshop in Charlotte, NC.
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com
Welcome to In the Loop in Charlotte, north Carolina, and this time I had on two guests that I haven't had on before. This time it was Lisa Marie Delgado from Gary J Long Jewelers and Aurora Simpson from Holiday Jewelry, and these two are definitely a focus on marketing, so we talked all about events and different in-store projects and trends that they're following. It was a really cool conversation. They're full of a lot of energy and we're in front of a live crowd, which is always a lot of fun, and I love having a chance to have a conversation with some people that I haven't spoken with before, so please enjoy.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform and digital growth agency. Our mission reaches way beyond technology. With decades of experience and long-lasting industry relationships, punchmark enables jewelry businesses to flourish in any marketplace. We consider our clients our friends, as many of them have been friends way before becoming clients. Punchmark's own success comes from the fact that we have a much deeper need and obligation to help our friends succeed. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business and stitch together your digital and physical worlds in a way that achieves tremendous growth and results. Schedule a guided demo today at punchmarkcom. Slash go.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. Like I was saying before, this is actually a recurring series that we do. So we do retailer roundtables because I think that one of the truest facts about the jewelry industry is that jewelers love listening to jewelers talk about jewelry and these are always our best episodes. Everybody I've had on several people here. I've had on Cole in the past. I've had on Caleb. In the past I've had on I feel like who am I presenting?
Speaker 1:Oh, anna, vincent, Anybody else, several people in here and it's really interesting because the conversations are never the same.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we talk about you know, what fashion trends are going on, and I've had on people from as diverse of a range of places, as different coasts from coast to coast, so from Oregon all the way down to California or all the way down to Florida and California and back again, and as a result, the stores are so different that you get these great conversations and I'm hoping to kind of contrast that right now as well. We just had this conversation with two of our vendors this will be airing the week after that, but our previous vendors were Jordan with Bravani and Craig with Ospy, and that conversation was all about vendors and how, what they're going through with the current state of trade and global trade. And this one, I'm hoping, with Lisa and Aurora from Gary J Long Jewelers and Holiday Jewelry, I'm hoping we can talk a little bit about what's going on in your store as well. So first of all, can you maybe introduce yourself and how long you've been with your store?
Speaker 3:My name is Lisa Marie Delgado. I've been with Gary J Long Jewelers in Stockton, California, for four years and I just started my GAA courses to be a graduate gemologist.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, that's so cool and Aurora.
Speaker 4:Hi, I'm Aurora Simpson. I'm director of marketing for Holiday Jewelry and I've been with them for about three and a half years.
Speaker 1:Super cool. So you were saying I'm relatively new to the industry but I consider that a seasoned vet. At this point that's super cool. And you're going to school to be a certified gemologist Just to give people an idea what goes into kind of getting that certification.
Speaker 3:Luckily it's online courses. You can do in-person classes like your diamond grading labs and everything like that. That'll come down the line. It just started. It's self-paced, so I feel like it's a big challenge for me. I never went to school after high school, so I never went to college, so I didn't think I could learn again or obtain information and retain it, so being able to do this at my own pace. But also it takes a lot of discipline that I didn't know was going to come with the whole gig.
Speaker 3:So I thought it was just going to be a breeze, but I had to really put everything down, put my phone down and really focus on school once I left work, so it's been a challenge. I just started with Essentials, so Diamond Grading starts in June, and it's been a challenge. But I I just started with essentials, so diamond grading starts in June, and it's been a challenge. But I know that the end goal is going to be like a really big thing for me and for my store.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. It's one of those things that I feel like people talk about like, oh, I'm going to be a graduate gemologist and I guess I've never really understood what goes into it, but it's definitely something I've heard lots of people talk about. Aurora, did you go to school for marketing, or is that something that you kind of slipped into?
Speaker 4:Yeah, actually I did go to school for graphic design and marketing as well as photography, and that's kind of where my background was, and then I kind of fell into the jewelry industry through those, through David Welk. I was photographing for an event for a nonprofit that Ray Holiday attends every year and supports and is very much involved in, and he said he just looked over and said, oh, I should hire her. That's awesome. And he did that's so cool.
Speaker 1:And so we're at the client workshop and, I'm sure, kind of continuing with your education. How has the workshop been? I think this is both of your first time attending. Have you learned anything new, anything in particular maybe?
Speaker 3:The best thing that I've learned is that I am not alone in the fact that marketing is really hard in this industry. From taking photos of jewelry to make it actually look good to coming up with some type of campaign or some type of sale or some type of anything to get people in our store. It's a lot harder than what I did before.
Speaker 1:Yeah so yeah. Anything in particular, any favorite presentations so far.
Speaker 4:Oh gosh, there's been a lot of really good information and a lot of that I'm really excited about.
Speaker 4:A lot of really interested people just looked up to see what you're going to say there yeah, there's a lot of tidbits of things that I want to start implementing and a lot of things is like okay, I knew I wasn't utilizing that the right way, so I need to circle back to that. Yeah, there's been a lot. The AI stuff has been really interesting. There's been a lot of talk about it in my store and one of the things that we've been trying to you know, how can we use this best for our business?
Speaker 1:And that's been, that's probably, that's probably like one of the top things for sure, and so we talked about a little bit about events and just marketing in general, and I think events is something I feel like we sometimes all say that we want to do, and then sometimes it's like oh yeah, we'll just wait until Christmas, you know, and then we're going to do a Christmas event, or we're going to wait until Valentine's Day, and then we do Valentine's Day.
Speaker 1:So let's start with this. Are there anything other than the two I just mentioned that you guys do for events that have been interesting at your store, any events that aren't just, you know, valentine's Day or Christmas? You know, classic wish list events. Valentine's Day or Christmas, you know, classic wishlist events.
Speaker 3:We are going to be implementing a little bit better this year, but last year we wanted to start a kind of like a wishlist party, inviting our clients via our email blast because I feel like it's a little more personal, since they signed up for that. Last year did not go too well, but the store allowed me to do four events instead of our one big trunk show for Christmas. So I think if I implemented a little bit earlier maybe because we blink and it's Christmas- especially at this point.
Speaker 3:So I'm going to try to implement this time a little bit better the wish list event, because the Edge has the wish list. It has been extremely helpful for our other clients that may need a little assistance. It also helps track who made that sale initially in the beginning, who put it on the wish list. It helps us in that way. So I think the wish list party will be a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Can you just talk to me a little bit about what a wish list?
Speaker 3:party is. Is someone able to do their own? Last year we did it for a whole store open, so from 10 am to 5.30, we invited people in our clients in for hors d'oeuvres, just refreshments, nothing until about 5. We did like drinks, but we invited our clients in to look around. We have all this product in for you. We brought it in for you. It helped us learn what was really kind of on trend that we were going to be seeing in the holiday season.
Speaker 3:It didn't get too much traction, but I'm very hopeful that if we can kind of keep doing it just as wonderful as our trunk show is we can start doing something mid-year and have the same event or same turnout as we do in christmas. So fingers crossed, yeah and what about like?
Speaker 1:so I I think it was uh lenny that gave the presentation and he was mentioning, like how uh 50 of your clients are going to do. Lenny, do you remember the? The stats off the top?
Speaker 2:of your head. It's 10% of your customers do 50% of their business.
Speaker 1:There you go. So around that topic of I mean the term I always use is VIPs Do you guys do anything related to marketing to them or just reaching out to them to ask like hey, you know, we have a holiday coming up, or hey haven't seen you guys in a while, would you guys? I just got this thing that you mentioned that you might've liked. Is VIP marketing something that's on your guys' radar, or is that something you guys want to do in the future?
Speaker 4:Most definitely. It's something that we utilize a lot. Um, we actually do quite a few events and that's one of the first things I do and we just had the uh, we did an estate and antique jewelry event with beneficial estate just last month, I think, or maybe it was march, I can't remember now. So, burr, but uh, it was a very good event. You know a lot of high-end stuff and all that. We did save the dates to our vips, we did reminders, we did follow-up phone calls and we had a really good traction on the event, which has just been. Yeah, it's been great so, which is it's a lot of fun too, because we do quite a few events oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and besides I mean, just like um alisa was mentioning, is there a uh like an event that's not just like the normal run in the mill, that that's been successful for you in the past?
Speaker 4:um, well, I think one that's really been successful for over the years that has gotten really big in our area is our balloon pop. We do a gemstone balloon pop. We fill our store with balloons that have genuine gemstones inside of them and we have a couple different price points that people hit and they come in and they pop a balloon and they keep the gemstone. Then we do a follow-up event that we're implementing this year for a mounting event. That's going to be a lot of fun. That's going to pair with a couple other things. We have.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's so cool. I just want the gemstone, I just kind of want to hold on to it. Oh, people love it, it's so fun.
Speaker 4:People are so excited about it. You get balloon with a gemstone in it pop and they're just oh, what I got? What I got? Yeah, and it is just it was. It's something that just started as kind of a fun event, something to just generate a little bit of traction and get some awareness out there, and it's really turned into something that is, you know, more profit driven.
Speaker 4:We partner with a non-profit and donate 20 of the proceeds wow um and that just has had great turnover and work with them quite a bit to help feature them. You know kind of pull in their group with everything and it's gone really, really well.
Speaker 1:How do you source your gemstones? If you don't mind me asking, if you don't mind giving up the question how do you source your gemstones?
Speaker 4:Well, ray has done a lot of that. We do a variety of things because I know they go to a lot of the shows and they do some buying there as well, as we have a full service repair shop. We have a lot of estate jewelry, a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:You know we'll pull stones and so we kind of collect for it all year long. Oh cool, yeah, great way to use. Like I would never call it scrap, but like yeah leftover materials and shrinkage.
Speaker 4:That sounds great yeah, we do a lot of sorting so they go through, and they do go through and check everything, and so it's there's a lot involved in it, but it's, it's done. Great for us, it's.
Speaker 1:We're known for it all over our area do you guys ever have a any uh temptation to like slip into some of these um trend uh events, such as like uh permanent jewelry? It's something I I wanted to do an episode about it and then I canceled it because I was like man, this isn't gonna stick around. And then it's still around like two years later. Have you guys done any like anything around that kind of thing?
Speaker 3:um, that's kind of awful to say, but Gary is very old school, traditional, um, but he's very open. Um, I haven't sold him on permanent jewelry yet. Um, I think, uh, jordan had mentioned something, um, from Bravani when he was saying that when you had to ask him about trending and is it worth it? And you kind of like, well, I'm going to go through all the hassle of doing this, getting all these, all this, all that you need just to have that one client maybe to come in. And I don't, I want I think permanent jewelry is really cool. But then you think about, well, what happens when it busts up? And it's now your fault. It's not the client's fault, it's your fault. I don't wear it that often, you wear it every day.
Speaker 1:So you kind of run into those things.
Speaker 3:But I think that we have been tempted a lot with a lot of trends, but I feel like we're always so far behind that by the time we maybe get to that point of having that in stock the trend is now over.
Speaker 4:Um, that's what I thought, that's how I that's how I see it.
Speaker 3:Is that by the time we get there, it's not going to be worth it anymore. Um, but you never know.
Speaker 1:Trends are constantly coming right back around, yeah, they come right back and what about yourself? Have you guys? Have you thought about, uh, maybe getting into that?
Speaker 4:um, not so much we're in. I mean, we're a good 10 years behind everybody where I live, it's all you know where the trends don't hit nearly as quickly. Um, and so you know, we kind of look for a little bit more sustainability and just not as reactive to that. I try, I definitely pay attention to it and I do use a lot of it, kind of like our social media more so but we haven't had too much of that bring anything in for, like our events, or too much that we're doing.
Speaker 1:I guess that's related to the next point I want to ask about is do you guys pay attention to jewelry fashion? Are you guys following anything? Is there a source that you get your trends in fashion about, following anything? Is there a source that you get your, uh, your, your trends in fashion about, like, is there something that you're paying attention to most? Because I feel like if you, I could show you 37 different uh points that are, oh, it's this, this is the next big thing, but what really matters to your location is completely, you know, uh, isolated. Do you have like a source that you'd like, as far as far as you know, fashion news or trends?
Speaker 3:Instagram.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Do you have like a local influencer that you follow?
Speaker 4:No, I don't follow any influencers.
Speaker 3:I look into the events that are happening. Just recently, of course, was the Met Gala. Ah yeah, and I feel like the jewelry completely stole the show because it was a tailored theme, so it's straight lines, it's clean cut and the colored gemstones were just, they were beautiful, they were breathtaking. So I just kind of look into these events. I'm not sure if my social media is ready for me to go that direction, so I'm kind of slowly thinking of how I can put this into our store. Um, I know anybody who's anybody likes to see celebrities, likes to see these things and pair it with something that we may have in stock. Um, so I'm trying to figure out how to have the best way to do that, but it's really just Instagram and, um, I come from a different background of marketing. I came from a clothing brand, so I worked with a lot of music artists um, so I watched them.
Speaker 3:I watched the football players because those are everyone loves to see that, um, but that's the only thing I get. It's all Instagram. That's all it is and Instagram magazine. They have really good articles about the trends that are out so and big events that happen.
Speaker 4:Yeah, about yourself uh, yeah, kind of similar. I don't have a lot of specific ones I follow right now because I try to be kind of broad so it's not too tailored like to me personally or what I'm specifically looking at, um, but I do kind of follow like a lot of like kind of our local I don't want to say influencers, but I guess that's what it's called.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the micro influencers you know in in our areas of kind of like what they're doing, what some of the shops there are doing, um, and kind of just keeping to that Cause, a lot of our stuff is just so still kind of really traditional, um, but yeah, like Met Gala, the big events like that, the celebrities, you know what, what's popping up on them, so do a lot of that Uh. And then whatever emails say oh, 7g was on, yeah, I was comfortable on, cabaret was on um, so those are helpful.
Speaker 1:So I kind of kind of watch a lot of that. It's really interesting that you mentioned, uh, colored gemstones, because it does feel like that's starting to become like a big trend that is slowly starting to emerge. It's kind of uh I feel similarly about it the way I did about, um just athletes in general uh, so increasingly they're saying that it used to be that celebrities were driving jewelry and just fashion in general forward, but now increasingly I think you're starting to see athletes, especially sports, that are helmetless. You know that you can see their faces. So basketball and baseball and tennis, because they have usually have walk-ins and they are pushing their own personal brand and it is incentivizing to them to be wearing certain pieces of jewelry. Or even when it comes to timepieces you're seeing it a lot with I think it's F1.
Speaker 1:I'm not an F1 fan, but they're all sponsored by every watch brand imaginable, and I think it's because of, like, how much airtime and how much opportunities they get to kind of push their own personal brand. So it's cool that you're following that as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:It's interesting, and so when it comes to buying, do you guys get to do the marketing? Are you able to say like, hey, we don't have any Cuban links and I've seen lots of trends We'd love to push that. Could you like have an influence on the buying? Do you guys go to trade shows, or is that not something that you're usually involved in?
Speaker 4:Well, I'm going to my first trade show in July. Oh which one? I'm going to IGO.
Speaker 1:Oh, exciting.
Speaker 4:Shout out to Penny yeah, yep, so I'm looking forward to that. I haven't I want to say I've had too much influence in that right now, usually like I'm usually going through okay, what do we have here already that meets with these trends, or that I want to kind of showcase? Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 3:I say it's too much responsibility. Even if a rep comes, I'm like no, that's really nice. But Gary's joke is if you pick it, you have to sell it.
Speaker 3:So, that's just a little too much pressure for me, but I do like I do watch these MetGallup events like that and I do mention it. I do send the links to my general manager who goes to the trade show with Gary. We have brought in a few things but because our resources are so easy to reach out to and do a special order for, we don't usually keep anything kind of outrageous or kind of crazy in stock. We have our larger pieces, which is fantastic, and mostly in color gemstones, which is great in lab, but we know that we can get what that client's looking for and be able to make them happy within a couple days, that we don't really keep anything too big like that in stock.
Speaker 1:With marketing, I always wonder. So everybody says, ok, you need to be taking more photos and marketing more and things like that. I guess this is that is your job. Is it just going around and picking one or two pieces and saying, hey, can I borrow you to put it on your wrist and take a quick boomerang or a reel or something like that? Or is it more thought out? Because I've heard arguments for both, like the spontaneous kind of approach versus the more kind of thought out, scheduled approach. Is there any value to one or the other?
Speaker 4:both. You gotta have both. Yeah, I, I try to utilize both and, depending because I do the, I am that would get back here. Come here, you don't play model today. We're doing this, we're gonna do this and I'll try and get as much, you know, as many assets I can right then, when I have someone, because we're a busy store, I'll try and pull someone and then next thing you know it's an hour or two, they've been busy, I've moved on to something else, so it's not happening right then. So I've got to have some sort of plan and action. I try and schedule as much as I can Now. I'm out of the store right now at this, so it's like okay, here I I try to have a strategy with it, but still have that flexibility to pull something together and just get what's going on right now, because a lot of people they want to see that that was what's happening right now. Oh, I just saw this, I just saw you on there Download, come down and talk to you about it, and just having that immediacy is great.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So, or like we just did, um, we've had a huge you know the fake gold scam. Um, I'm sure everyone's probably I don't know if everyone's had that, but people are y'all selling fraudulent gold chains, stuff down at the gas station, or they've come in and they've got a sob story and now people have bought this. You know, what we're seeing now is thousands of dollars worth of you know junk jewelry, um, and coming into us to have it tested, see what they can do, and we're having to tell them this is, this is nothing. Yeah, and we had two people in within the first 15 minutes of opening one day that had gotten hit for one gentleman got hit for $8,000 and another one for $10,000.
Speaker 4:I hate, that and it, yeah, and it was. It was terrible and these are one guy, you know, he's out in the boonies, he's, you know, 20, 30 miles outside of town and they came knocking on his door in the middle of the night with a sob story and he, he went ahead and, you know, bought us test it. He's like 80, 90 years old, um, you know, and so right there, like all right, we need to make a make a reel. We're gonna talk about this right now. Don't do it, come and have us test it. We'll test it right there for you. We don't have to be involved, we just want to make sure, okay, um, and so we just kind of a community psa, yeah, and we did right there that morning and boom, got it out there and just started, got pushed everywhere. Um, actually, the news even called us to feature it and interview Derek, our new owner, about it wow, that's a.
Speaker 1:That's a. Really. It's amazing how that that content is um, what I would call like fresh. You know, it's very uh like not seen everywhere else, but that's awesome that you're involved in that. I think that I bet there's ways that you could do that with even more stuff with like diamonds, for example. If you have like a diamond testing one and just doing like a little bit of information about either what you can look for or just get it tested before you try to buy it, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and we're always willing to do that. Bring it in, we'll test it, we'll check it, we'll clear it, give you an approximate value, and we just encourage expertise and lend that authority to our communities because we want to, you know, help protect our community.
Speaker 1:Is that something you get oversight on from your, uh, from management, or your, your, your owners, where it's like what your, what content you're putting out there? Are you at all, uh need to run it by them? Or because it's spontaneous, you're given that kind of latitude to be able to make decisions like that?
Speaker 4:Oh, that's my department. That's awesome, that's me. That one's all me. I do tend to, you know, I like to show it to people and review it with them so they have some idea about it. What's going on, um, but yeah, it's kind of. If someone has something wrong with it, they come tell me later, and I think I've only had one issue in the last three and a half years. Yeah, so, and now actually started a little facebook Facebook group with messages, so I just share it to our staff group. So they have, they know what's on there, they know what products are being featured, they can see their reels that they're being featured in and they don't have to go looking for it.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so smart. So when?
Speaker 4:customers are looking for it too it's right there and they go through and easily access it and that's been really helpful.
Speaker 1:That's how that's amazing. I love that. I love that. It's uh, you know, ties into the store even more, but that's great.
Speaker 1:And I guess that kind of ties into a little bit more of like projects. So obviously a big one for you is, um, getting your certification. But when it comes to like your store or just even just doing marketing, uh, do you have any projects that you guys are working on? Because the the true kind of through line for retailer roundtables that I've done in the past is that there's always a project being worked on. There's always something that you're trying to even improve for your store or get better at. Is there anything that kind of is in the works for you that you like, whether it's like putting a new cabinet or display cases or, you know, upgrading a piece of utility, anything like that?
Speaker 3:For us it's just. We did a complete remodel of our store on the first year that I was there, so three years ago. But now we're starting to notice it's not as warm as we thought it was. So we're adding, we're trying to figure.
Speaker 4:no, it just color, warm it doesn't it's?
Speaker 3:it's very inviting now, but it seems a little cold, so we're trying to warm it up. Um, so we're we're looking into accent walls and we can't decide, um, and just kind of just adding a little bit of a little bit of a change. But projects outside of design, there's nothing really too much going on right now, and when we're a small team so we all wear multiple hats I mean, I'm in marketing, but I'm also sales and I'm admin and we all just kind of we all put everything in, everyone helps everybody. So it's right now, we're just waiting for Christmas to come. To be honest, you get to that point of the year that that's what we're kind of focused on right now.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. Anything for you guys, anything that's in the works.
Speaker 4:Oh, so many things. I have a long list of projects, anything you want to share, um, well, right now, one of the big ones, too, is just you're working on the website, redeveloping that. It's just you utilizing it, so it's a better tool for us, yeah, and there's so many things that are there that we haven't been utilizing, um, and things I haven't dove into, and so that's really exciting to kind of look at that and it's like, oh, I can, I can do that now. Oh wait, I can just do that. Oh, I just got to go over here and do that. You know, cause there was just that little disconnect. Um, cause, when I started, I just I just jumped it and started and just hit the ground running, and so a lot of things that I'd been wanting to do, um are just now coming up to the time to be able to do it.
Speaker 4:We've had a big transition with, you know, ray, our owner, retiring. This is our also our 50th year in business, wow, um, so we're planning yeah, so we're. We have our golden 50th anniversary coming up, and so we're planning on that. We're going to have a whole lot of rollouts for that. That's that's exciting. That's in development right now and trying to finalize it. But just, yeah, lots of projects, lots of events We've.
Speaker 4:With the big retirement sale you know we had, we had a huge sale and we really saturated our market and so it's been kind of a recap. What can we do now to recover from that as well as build business and rebuild that momentum we had, because we've had a great several years. Now we have this big sale and we had a big backlash too with that, because everyone's like you're closing, you're closing. We're like, no, we're not closing, ray's retiring, we're not closing. But still, that rumor mill went out there and it's been really hard to kind of recover from that Interesting Wow, yeah, it was really.
Speaker 4:I had people coming and going oh God, you're closing, where am I going to go? People are having panic attacks because we're closing, okay. So it's like, no, you're fine, you're good and it's just, it's been a real, we're a very visible community. We're really stepping up a lot of those efforts, kind of with the new management team and the new owner, to be maintain that same value and show like, hey, we're still here, we're still going to be here for another 50 years. Um, and yeah, you come see us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, come talk to us 50th year anniversary, um kind of sale that will like kind of tie in and allow you to, you know, kind of dispel that though, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we've been pulling all sorts of stuff in for that. It's probably like, hey, this is our fifth year in business, we're not going anywhere, we are still here, and so I think it's a lot of things that are going to be coming up, a lot of things.
Speaker 1:So you had mentioned that you had been working on the website. Have you used the new page building tool yet?
Speaker 4:It only rolled out a couple of days ago, gonna shit, not yet. I'm looking forward to that for some of the stuff that I just did and it's like, oh, that would have been great for this. That would have made it so much simpler because, like some things I just threw together really fast, like, okay here, how quickly can I get this done to get it up there so that it's there and not really utilize it? Um, as well as it could be, and so I'm excited for that.
Speaker 1:It's like that'll make that so much faster well, you guys seem like you're super busy and working on like a million things. I'm so glad that you guys were able to come here and, you know, take part in a round table, but also just take part in the workshop, because there's always like that's the one thing that we've learned every year when we come here is that there is different technology every single year. I remember I was just looking back, I was searching for some notes, and I went back and I found our notes for the first workshop and it's so funny. It was like still similar topics. You know, hey, um man, I guess it was, um, it was all about diamonds at the time. Oh my gosh, lab grown diamonds. Are you guys selling that lab grown diamonds? Asking all these questions and, as a result, I feel like the tie-in is that the trends change, but I feel like the hard work and the marketing, the effort never has to, it can never stop and it has to be something that you tie in and continue pushing forward. So definitely, I appreciate you guys coming in and sharing your story and being a part of that. So thank you so much. Thank you, yeah, thanks everybody. I appreciate it. We'll be back, uh, next week we'll have this episode out on Tuesday and, if you're interested, again, like I mentioned yesterday, these episodes come out every Tuesday on Spotify, apple Podcasts anywhere you get your podcasts and these episodes are all tailored specifically to retail jewelry stores and we try our best to cover information that would be helpful or interesting or something that you might want to listen to while you're behind the bench working or on your way to work or something like that. So if you're interested, please tune in or let me know and I would love to talk with you about it. So in the meantime, thanks everybody. I appreciate your time. We'll be back next week, tuesday Cheers. Thanks guys. All right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1:This week my guests were Lisa Marie Delgado from Gary J Long Jewelers and Aurora Simpson from Holiday Jewelry. They were my guests at the Punchmark Client Workshop. We have it every year in May. Maybe you'll join the next one. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, michael Burpo. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cocker. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom slash loop. That's L-U-P-E. Thanks. We'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers, bye.
